Pages

Misconceptions About Having a Big Blog and Making Money

Over the past few months I have considered moving my blog to the self hosted Wordpress.org {meaning I would host and own my own site and pay someone to host it which is different from Wordpress.com}. I have learned a lot over the past few months about this process and have come to a better understanding and different stance on this whole process. Thanks to my friend Angela, who counseled me through the whole process, and some emails with Christina, finding there are many others out there feeling my same pain, I decided to write this post:

You have probably noticed many big bloggers make the move to Wordpress. They talk about how fantastic it is {which I am sure they are completely correct} but they often leave out the information about what it really entails and what it all means. We just hear they made the move and feel left out we have yet to make the move. Now for bloggers who are looking to make their blog a full time job, I believe this is a good investment and a step in the right direction. But from the little I know, it takes a lot of time and energy to get to a place where blogging is actually paying like a full time job. You either have to spend a ton of time online, create an awesome and unique product to sell, or be so fabulously amazing that people are running to your blog every time you post. Personally, I am none of these things.

I do make money blogging but it is not a lot. I work with BlogHer and I have some independent advertisers...but do not let this fool you. The small amount of money I am making is paying for our internet and a couple buckets of paint. It is by far not putting food on the table.

...

I recently read another post about the benefits of moving to Wordpress. Again, if you are looking to be a serious full time blogger, go for it. But I think the problem is that it often puts pressure on bloggers that their blog is not good enough. That their blog is not going to be respected because their url ends with blogspot.com. This is not true at all! I know many big bloggers who are creating a success for themselves while still using blogger {Thrifty Decor Chick, Tater Tots and Jello, just to name a few}.

At the end of the day, I can not have financial ties to my blog. Sometimes the house is a mess, I need to tend to my husband, and life just happens. I do not want to feel tied to my blog in a way that I am choosing it over other things that have priority in my life. I talk about putting family first, being frugal, and slowing down. In order to live up to this choice of living, I have to consider where my blog comes in to play. There have been many times where I have considered walking away from my blog because I was not being responsible with my time at home or I was letting the internet get in the way of time I needed to be giving to my husband. But I was able to be okay with not walking away because I could be away for a season {whether it be a week or the month I was gone after I got married} and somehow you are all still here.

All I want to say is that before allowing yourself to fall into the pressure of making money to blog, getting more followers, moving to Wordpress, etc...really consider the priority blogging has in your life. There are so many resources out there on how to grow your blog into a business. But before we all jump on the bandwagon, I question whether we all are ready to do what it takes to push our blog in that direction.

I often feel guilty about sacrificing other things for my blog. At the end of the day, I love blogging, and have to be okay with how I spent my day. But it is a constant challenge to find a balance of my time so that I can keep my blog up and running but still be true to the person I want to be.

What are your thoughts on this? Have you felt this pressure for your own blog?

12 comments:

Wonderfully said, I am constantly trying to find balance. And not get sucked into the pressure (that is mostly put on by me) I've gotten into a groove that seems to work, and not suck my time away from what really matters. I'm sure soon enough something will throw me for a loop...

A great, heartfelt post!! You hit the nail on the head. I've only recently considered WP b/c of the fiasco with the blogs all shutting down for a day. I lost all the comments on my Giveaway post, and was only able to keep it live b/c I had all the comments emailed to me!

perfect timing for this post! i feel all of those same pressures, and it has totally ruined my drive to blog. it has killed my creativity and my writing voice. everything feels so forced now because im thinking about how things should sound in order to be more appealing to others. and you know what....i think my readers have sensed that and i have driven them away, my traffic has dropped pretty significantly since i moved to WP. like you i didnt feel good enough when i was at blogger. your blog is FABULOUS! i have been a LONG time follower. dont change a thing!

I don't have ads on my blog. I have been blogging for over six years and I've never had any kind of ads on it. It's tempting, for sure. I mean, it's passive money for something I'm doing anyway. I don't want to ever feel like I'm limited in what I can write about though, and I know there are guidelines for a lot of the ad networks. While it would be kind of fun to be a "famous" blogger, I don't think I'd do well with the pressure that entails. I think you're right - you have to definitely weigh the priorities in your life and decide where your blog fits. Right now, it's a hobby that I enjoy, but I think if it were a job with all the rules and pressures of one, I wouldn't enjoy it nearly as much.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure you can connect a blogspot account to your own domain so you don't need to switch to Wordpress to do that.

Great post!! There is pressure to move to WordPress for sure. But I also think you can be a successful blogger and make a good living on a blog hosted on blogger.

I love Blogger and it has been wonderful for me. There have only been 2 times that my blog has been down in three years I have been blogging.

I AM making the dreaded move to WordPress just because I think it will make my life easier with all the plug ins that it offers. But I really believe that Blogger is changing and will offer all of those convenient extras too someday. I have so many mixed feelings about moving over to WordPress... Great post and I love that you are sticking with Blogger!!

I also think A Cup of Joe is still on Blogger and she gets like 6 million page views a month or something :)

Thanks for all the valuable info...I'm shill new to blogging, so I found this post very helpful. Also wanted to let you know that my post today is about winning your DewDropz contest...thanks for the earrings!

I love that your wrote this and were so honest about your feelings. I often struggle between my business, blog and family. I used to be in the corporate world, so the drive to 'succeed', push myself, surpassing goals...blah, blah, blah...sometimes it creeps in and I kind of beat myself up. This blog reminded me that I am not alone and that my real success is found in the smiles of my loved ones. Thanks!

Thank you so much for posting this! I think a lot of people feel real pressure to make their blog "big" and it makes them unhappy. Of course if you're having a blast then fine, but so many people seem really discouraged about not being huge. I think just being authentic is so much more valuable and interesting!

I came here out of curiosity of you and your husband for we hold the same uncommon last name.Unexpectedly, I will be walking away with a decision made that I have debated for a long while. Thank you for your post. I am a poet and artist that founded an online art and literary journal a couple of years ago and got sucked into wordpress.org and have been considering leaving for awhile. So, thank you again for laying out the words that reminded me what is important.